Survey Shows 24% Tapped Retirement Savings

April 21, 1998

It's retirement and the living is easy.

Easy? Isn't everyone supposed to be nervous about saving enough for their golden years?

Not necessarily. The 1998 Phoenix ``Fiscal Fitness'' survey reports that more Americans -- buoyed by an exuberant stock market and surging economy -- are not only less worried about their financial futures but would make a major luxury purchase in the near future.

One symptom: 24 percent say they reduced or diverted retirement savings in the past three years.

The reasons: 15 percent said to buy a new car; 12 percent, to make a major luxury purchase; and 12 percent, to take a vacation.

The survey reports increasing optimism about the future and declining worries about a primary wage earner in a household losing employment.

Hartford-based Phoenix Home Life Mutual Insurance, which sponsors the survey, said the results show a subtle but definite shift toward immediate gratification at the expense of overall financial security.

Robert W. Fiondella, Phoenix's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said his advice is ``to resist the tendency to be artificially buoyed by the rising stock market and healthy economy.''

``It's best to stay the course: saving for retirement, maintaining daily discipline and keeping long-term goals in mind.''

The survey was conducted by Yankelovich Partners Inc. and included interviews with 1,006 respondents aged 30-59 by telephone between Jan. 12 and Feb. 1.

The survey focused on households in which at least one person earns $40,000 or more annually. The average household income was $87,000.